John Pullinger

Biography

John Pullinger started as the National Statistician, Head of the Government Statistical Service (GSS) and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority on 1 July 2014.

John’s career began in 1980 when he joined the civil service after graduating in geography and statistics from Exeter University. After several statistical roles in different departments, John joined the Central Statistical Office as a senior civil servant in 1992. He was the project manager for the creation of the Office for National Statistics and was the policy lead on the development of the GSS. He worked on diverse projects and business, including responsibility for flagship publications like ‘Social Trends’, leading the neighbourhood statistics programme as well as being actively involved in the creation of the Statistics Commission and National Statistics in 2000.

John has represented the UK internationally at the United Nationals Statistical Commission, Eurostat and OECD.

In 2004, John became the 14th librarian to the House of Commons. He continued to be involved in the statistical community and took up the presidency of the Royal Statistical Society on 1 January 2013. He has been actively involved in statistics education including as the first Chair of the Getstats campaign for statistical literacy from 2010-13.

John is married with three adult children. He is active in his local community in Tunbridge Wells and has been the chairman of Great Culverden Park Limited since 1999.

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